Week 4- Income & Social Class

 Chapter 11- Income and Social Class

Social Class and Income Data Predict Expensive, Symbolic Products.

As a society, products are the manifestation of social class and income. This week I have thought a lot about my experiences and the people I have met throughout my life. I would like to focus on the idea of status symbols. 

Status symbols are products whose primary purpose is to communicate someone's social standing. These products show off prestige and wealth to others. In my experiences, I have seen how a product can communicate someone's wealth, as I know many other people have also experienced. I would like to use examples of people I know, and how the products they buy communicate their wealth, but I would also like to highlight the differences between the people and the products that they buy. 

In my freshman and sophomore years of college, I attended the beautiful University of Tampa. While I was there I witnessed an immense amount of wealth like nothing I had seen before being from Upstate New York. I always knew there was wealth here in Rochester, and I had met people who I knew were wealthy, but not very flashy, or outwardly "rich". 

When I went to Tampa, within my first week I understood that I definitely came from an upper middle class, whereas many of my classmates came from upper-class backgrounds. How did I come to this understanding? My first week there, I was meeting tons of new people, one of them from my floor was named Max, and a group of us decided to get food. Freshmen were not allowed to have a car on campus, but Max explained we could take his car that he was allowed to have because he "paid to have it there". We walked to the parking garage and arrived at his car. It was a brand new Porche Cayenne. A luxury car, pretty expensive, and an 18-year-old guy drove it? I did not want to make a comment and expose myself as not "fitting in", as I drove a 2012 Honda Civic back home. 

The more I met new people, the more I saw how many people had status symbols that they were excited to announce, or show off. Many people had BMWs, Audis, Lamborghinis? Not only did they have luxury cars, but they also had designer clothes, high-rise apartments downtown, and they would spend a lot more at the bars.  None of this I had really witnessed before. 

The people I met in school were very wealthy, but I had known other very wealthy people from home that did not spend their money the same way. As a member of the Rochester Yacht Club, I would race with my family every Wednesday, I met a man after one race that my father was old friends with. He skippered an older boat, about 34 feet long, and not very well maintained. The man wore athletic shorts and an old t-shirt. I made a comment to my dad after we left that he was a really nice man, and my dad informed me that he was extremely wealthy and the CEO of a well-known company. 

I think to myself what the difference was between the how and what the peers I met at school purchased compared to the man I met. Why do some choose to be so flashy, spend money on things that suggest their wealth, while there are other people equally as wealthy that do not choose to spend in the same manner? 

Maybe some people strive for Invidious Distinction, the use of status symbols to inspire envy, or maybe the individual wants to promote the fact that they can afford the expensive product through Conspicuous Consumption. 

The University of Tampa